Welcome to St. Clement's Island

This small island in the Chesapeake Bay watershed has a history as old as Maryland. St. Clement's Island was the first landfall of the Maryland settlers in 1634. A Potomac River landmark for almost four centuries, it has been a thriving farm, a popular summer resort, a target for big guns, and a regular stop for Chesapeake steamboats running from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Norfolk. The Maryland settlers named the island after St. Clement, the Catholic patron saint of sailors and seas. It became Blackistone Island when settler Nehemiah Blackistone married Elizabeth Gerrard and acquired her property in 1669. The State of Maryland renamed it St. Clement's when it took possession in 1960. Today it is a peaceful island retreat managed by the Maryland Park Service, and the Potomac waters around it have long been popular with watermen hand tonging to harvest oysters.

Maryland · United States